April’s retooling for the over 19000 science-based teacher interns conducted by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC)
was marked by unique characteristics expected of any Junior Secondary School (JSS) cohort.
The exercise, which ended last Friday, left most Master Trainers and Trainers of Trainees talking and reaching each other across their regions to compare and contrast April’s group attributes.
Speaking to Education News during its end-of-retooling survey, most trainers praised the April group for the fabulous display of discipline, which made them wish the exercise could continue for more days than the scheduled period.
Unlike the arts-based teachers who were retooled throughout 2024, the science-based interns were found to be timekeepers who would be in the training venues as early as 7:30am.
“They made us report to the venues very early, unlike their arts colleagues, who could keep us waiting for long. This was a different group,” agreed one of the trainers from Nairobi.
In addition to keeping and maintaining the arrival time, the teachers were found to be extra keen on the training.
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Most of them took notes and wouldn’t shy away from asking questions and seeking explanations on areas that looked grey.
The teachers, who were the majority of the first to be retooled on a Competency-Based Curriculum, shocked the trainers when they gave practical experiences related to the training outcomes with great self-efficacy.
Their hands-on approach is reported to have made their trainers’ work easy, enabling them to cover the training content meant for 5 days within 4 days. The training lost one day to the Easter holidays.
Unlike the usual noisy teachers signed by expectations dominated by inquiry on the amount of reimbursement, food, certification, availability of airtime and the duration of the training exercise, the April training centres were reported to be calm and interactive.
The training encompassed Special Needs Education (SNE) teachers who had their venues at the county level. The survey revealed that pre-vocational teachers were not involved in the just-concluded exercise.
Intern teachers drawn from age-based special schools, including hearing, Visual, and physically impaired, were the target in April’s retooling. It was further noted that TSC had not recruited teachers for the prevocational level in the special schools. Teachers handling intermediate levels are tasked with the prevocational classes, a factor that raises many concerns.
By Mark Otieno Jonyo.
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